BRUSSELS, October 27. /TASS/. European energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger and Ukraine’s Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yuri Prodan had a telephone conversation on Monday to discuss aspects of the forthcoming tripartite gas talks due in Brussels on October 29, a spokesman for the European Commission told TASS.

According to TASS information, the sides discussed issues of financial guarantees to Ukraine to pay for Russian gas supplies in November-December 2014. The spokesman however refused to elaborate whether any agreement on that matter had been reached, saying only that preparatory work for the tripartite talls was underway.

After the previous tripartite gas talks in Brussels on October 21, Oettinger admitted that Ukraine needed from one to two billion U.S. dollars to be able to pay for Russian gas. Kiev has already asked Brussels to issue short-term loans worth two billion euro but the European Commission has not yet confirmed whether that sum would be offered or not, noting that this issue would be subject of consultations in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund /IMF/.